Big Brother is, Quite Literally, in your Phone...

LONDON, May 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Thanks, in most part to social media, we have become a generation of over sharers. The extent to which we enjoy prying into the lives of others is phenomenal; yet the News International scandal drew to our attention the imposing lengths certain organisations would go to satisfy our inquisitiveness.

It's now gone one step further, with a new generation of technological spy software available to the masses from 'Stealth Genie'. They offer a phone 'tracking' service, where all content can be accessed directly from the customer's computer - without the victims knowledge, even the customer's billing information is masked.

This kind of technology is not without its potential benefits however. It could offer us peace of mind in an age where we are plagued with unease about the modern world - where our child's safety is concerned for instance.

The problem is that there can be no real sort of regulation on the use of such a product, since inevitably, each case must be judged on its individual merits. Yet, worryingly, Stealth Genie unashamedly targets their most profitable market - the suspicious partner - despite the potential for catastrophic consequences.

No doubt this controversial subject has huge scope for debate - with a passionate argument for either side. On the one hand spy software has the potential to save a life, yet on the other, it could result in tragedy. It would seem that there is far more potential for the latter to occur. We only need to consider how we would feel if we were being targeted ourselves to see how completely undesirable and unethical, not to mention paranoia inducing this is. If we were to readily use such software, clearly it would need to be controlled and used only in the right hands. This of course leads to the unanswerable question: who is to be the judge of who should and shouldn't be monitored? There is a clear moral distinction between the case for the suspicious partner and the worried parent, but the rest is a very grey area indeed.